Brussels, 20/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - Peter Mandelson the Commissioner for trade has affirmed that the European Union was “already the most open major economy in the world - more open than the United States”, but still had to eliminate further or reduce its own tariff and non-tariff barriers in the context of a successful outcome to WTO negotiations at the Doha round. Speaking on Monday during a press conference, “Lisbon and beyond: market access and external aspects to competitiveness” (EUROPE 9030), Mandelson affirmed that this additional opening up of the European goods and services market would bring at least two significant advantages to the European economy: 1) lower import prices for industrial products and raw materials and, consequently, a reduction in production costs for EU productive industries. The Commissioner stated that, “If European companies are to compete effectively in world markets, they need to make use of the most competitive sources of supply. This includes global outsourcing where this makes good business sense. Already 80% of raw materials enter the EU market duty free. We have to identify the areas where pockets of distortion remain that are detrimental to the competitiveness of downstream industries. Some agricultural products definitely belong to this category”. In this context he cited the case of sugar; 2) opening up EU borders will increase competitive pressures on EU industry, which in turn will lead to help strengthen competitiveness on the world markets. The Commissioner also explained how this opening up of the European markets would, however, have to be accompanied by greater access of EU products and services to the markets of other international partners.